As Apple's stock has dropped more than 10 percent in recent weeks in the face of negative headlines, Wall Street analysts still remain confident in recommending investors to buy in.

Analyst Shaw Wu with Sterne Agee sought to calm investor fears on Tuesday with his latest note, which acknowledged negative stories about Apple in the news lately. He said he has been receiving a number of inquiries from investors as to whether recent issues, including a rumored-but-denied protest at a Foxconn plant in China and lens flare issues with the iPhone 5 camera, have affected demand of the iPhone 5.

"From our latest supply chain work, we have not picked up a drop-off in demand and production appears to be improving with the bottleneck moving from components (like the in-cell touchscreen) to the assembly of the iPhone 5 itself," Wu wrote.

He said wait times of 3 to 4 weeks are currently being driven by "overwhelming demand" that Apple is seeing for the iPHone 5. He remains comfortable with his forecasts of 27 million iPhones sold in the September quarter, with the company on pace for a record breaking 46.5 million handsets in the December quarter.

Brian White with Topeka Capital Markets also on Tuesday noted that Apple is the "one bright spot" seen by component suppliers. White is currently on a tour of technology companies and suppliers in China and Taiwan.

White did note that the supply chain is still struggling with poor yields of both the iPhone 5 and the rumored "iPad mini." The suppliers White spoke to have not indicated that demand for the iPhone 5 has decreased since its launch last month.

He sees iPhone 5 shipments reaching between 32 million and 40 million in the December quarter. White originally forecast between 40 million and 50 million units, but apparent continuing yield issues are expected to hold back shipments through the holidays.

"Keep in mind, the iPhone 5 has only ramped in 31 countries but Apple has previously discussed a target of 100 countries by year end," White noted. "Thus the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are still selling in these other countries."

The latest data from iFeng found that two the two top selling smartphones during China's Golden Week holiday were the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4. Apple's market dominance continues even with the iPhone 5 rumored to launch in mainland China in December.

Optimism surrounding Apple was expressed by both White and Wu on Tuesday as the company's stock continued its slide. As noted byCNBC, AAPL has fallen more than 10 percent from its record closing price of $702.1 on Sept. 19.

If you look at a chart of the NASDAQ it looks almost Identical to the AAPL chart. There are a lot of worldwide economic issues but mostly EU bailout worries. AAPL does respond to negative global economic events but it always bounces back first.

No it wouldn't. Don't blame something for which you don't fully understand. Apple has a ton of big (institutional) money following it and it trades in technicals more than fundamentals/rumors/press/analysts think. I too took a bunch off the table at 701. When analysts suddenly expect large stocks to double or add zeros to the upside it's time for a pullback, and that's what's happened. It will head a little lower for a bit more than head back up after earnings.

What are Apple's margins again? I can't recall reading about that in their financials.

You don't need to. Simply take the full sale price less the cost of the component's parts and innards. The amount of profit (excluding R&D) will be much less in a iPad Miniature because it will sell for so much less but have basically the same parts. . And definitely far less than an iPhone's. This could be Apple's biggest mistake ever.
So wait to buy- definitely not until after the iPad Miniature is released.

What are Apple's margins again? I can't recall reading about that in their financials.

You don't need to. Simply take the full sale price less the cost of the component's parts and innards. The amount of profit (excluding R&D) will be much less in a iPad Miniature because it will sell for so much less but have basically the same parts. . And definitely far less than an iPhone's. This could be Apple's biggest mistake ever.
So wait to buy- definitely not until after the iPad Miniature is released.

By the time an Apple product is released the price is baked in. It always sells off a little on the official 'news' because old schoolers are formula traders. "Buy on rumor sell on news" but over the long term it keeps going up. The only thing about an iPad mini that could send the stock down would be a recall. Let's hope that never happens.

Spammy advocating for government regulators (funded through government tax collection) to interfere with the free market. I love it.

Collusion is not a free market and besides, if you think we have an actual "free market" now you are mistaken. There isn't a person in the world who could convincingly argue there is no collusion... Come on man. The price was stuck at $666 for like, a week at one point.

Spammy advocating for government regulators (funded through government tax collection) to interfere with the free market. I love it.

Collusion is not a free market and besides, if you think we have an actual "free market" now you are mistaken. There isn't a person in the world who could convincingly argue there is no collusion... Come on man. The price was stuck at $666 for like, a week at one point.

I did not express an opinion on whether or not AAPL's price is manipulated. When an aynrandian gets caught supporting a progressive idea like regulating markets, changing the subject is always

No it wouldn't. Don't blame something for which you don't fully understand. Apple has a ton of big (institutional) money following it and it trades in technicals more than fundamentals/rumors/press/analysts think. I too took a bunch off the table at 701. When analysts suddenly expect large stocks to double or add zeros to the upside it's time for a pullback, and that's what's happened. It will head a little lower for a bit more than head back up after earnings.

No point to rationalize it.
The stock market is inherently unpredictable and stock trading is gambling.

I did not express an opinion on whether or not AAPL's price is manipulated. When an aynrandian gets caught supporting a progressive idea like regulating markets, changing the subject is always

an attractive move (and it always cracks me up).

I'm not an anarchist, nor am I a full-fledged Objectivist, yet I have large swaths of agreement with each. I'm more of a minarchist with anarcho-capitalist influences (if you need some frame of reference).

Minarchists argue that the state has no authority to use its monopoly on force to interfere with free transactions between people, and see the state's sole responsibility as ensuring that contracts between private individuals and property are protected, through a system of law courts and enforcement. Minarchists generally believe a laissez faire approach to the economy is most likely to lead to economic prosperity.

So would you like taxes to be increased to hire more regulators or is it that the shibboleth of a "free market" is and always has been a myth?

I am not against all taxes. There should be sufficient tension between tax revenue and efficient services provided by the government that are Constitutionally limited and I presume this tension would create periods of insufficiently funded government. The balance between states rights and the federal government swing continuously, just as freedom of the people tends to decrease as the powers of government increase, which results in an eventual backlash and defunding of the illegitimate functions of government. These swings and continual tension ensures no one branch of government, or special interest becomes too powerful. Inevitably, "the people" get what they want, even if they do themselves harm by allowing the government to become too powerful for a while.

In the same way that individuals change throughout their lives, the size of government should increase at times, but it should also shrink at times. The problems we find today are that government is not shrinking because we have had presidents and a Congress that represent the interests of certain businesses, such as oil companies, the military-industrial complex and the banking/finance sector instead of fulfilling their Constitutionally-limited and defined functions. Corporatism is the name of the game today.

You don't need to. Simply take the full sale price less the cost of the component's parts and innards. The amount of profit (excluding R&D) will be much less in a iPad Miniature because it will sell for so much less but have basically the same parts. . And definitely far less than an iPhone's. This could be Apple's biggest mistake ever.
So wait to buy- definitely not until after the iPad Miniature is released.

its impossible to know this since nobody knows what deals Apple makes with suppliers for old parts. Most of the ipad mini so call "cost estimates" are based on year old components cost. People at Apple are not retarded, they know they need decent margins even with the low price. The mini will canibalize ipad2 sales, but so what if the margins are the same?

I want to know who exactly is engineering this stock drop. I'd love to see which firms are colluding and have the SEC start sending some of those folks to prison.

You and me both!!! Sick of them holding the reins on this stock. I had hoped with better relations with Wall street (aka Dividends) that some of this excessive trading would go away. It's interesting how many Hedge Funds have recently taken themselves private after hearing of the SEC's proposed rules. Some have simply paid back most of their investors and become 'private family firms' whatever that means. Sounds like an episode of American Greed on CNBC.

If SJ were still alive the analysts would be hawking their 'reality distortion field' theory, but since he's not and it's been exactly a year well then it's because SJ is gone! The hype has become so institutionalized it's a publishing industry unto itself!

It's HARD to hold onto Apple stock ain't it.

What is really factored into the price is a kind of perpetual sense of disbelief that any company could be as good as Apple is. ~Retrogusto

Stock isn't going back up any time soon.
- Competition has caught up and even passed Apple in technology.
- We haven't seen anything new yet that wasn't inspired by Jobs.
- Apple put all of their eggs in the finicky consumer market - while giving loyal industy supporters the middle finger.
- Lion is a disaster and commercial/professional users are running screaming in the other direction.
- They burned a lot of bridges.
- and the biggest reason to worry... I of all people bought Windows 7 and testing it out. Not because I want to - but because Apple is forcing me to - like most professionals. Mac Pro is a joke and iMacs are useless with glossy displays. Not to mention the push to put everything on the cloud with Lion is not sitting well with everyone. I'm not alone with a huge swath of old loyalists leaving the party. Was a good 20 year run. Can't complain.
(and for those who say 'bye, you wont be missed' - lol as your stocks plummet).

People just dont like the direction Apple is heading.

And for those of you short sighted enough to blame the 'media' - lol - seriously? Who do you think put Apple there in the first place?

They got some soul searching to do as a company. And they have to prove themselves as an innovator without Jobs. If they can do that - then stock will jump.
Right now - the only thing keeping the stock high is that the Apple TV and expectations the ecosystem around it will be amazing (without Jobs).
If that fails to materialize - watch out below.

Just remember you can make money quick on a falling stock then one increasing. It appears you have people trading or driving the stock price down using all the FUD around the wed, they are feeding on the negative news, Imagine if M$ stock dropped this much ever time they shipped crap, it does not since it everyone's expectation of M$ is crap.

The other thing is it could be Hedge funds and Mutual funds dumping or shorting to make sure they make their returns and how else but to short on negative news.

They will all change right before apple make their announcement since they do not want to risk shorting apple if they come out with good numbers.

It's as unpredictable in the long run, as it is in the short run.
Think about it if it wasn't.
Gamblers think they know when 'it's going to be black', but reality doesn't change because your able to fool yourself.